In the end, the dog drowned it in its water dish. He got bacon as a reward. The dog drives me up the wall sometimes, but tonight he's a hero.

My dog won hero status tonight as well. We've had a bit of a snake problem over the last month. We got rid of several from the inside of the house, but we couldn't figure out how they were getting in. A week ago, he was far too interested in a spot on the back porch, outside of where the kitchen sink is. I spotted him a few minutes later trotting across the yard with a rat snake hanging out of his mouth. Tonight he did the same thing. Seems my goofy Mastiff gets his snake charmer badge, and hero status from me.

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Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)

When my paper copies of the grocery ads get thrown out. I know I can look them all up online, but I have a hard time processing them that way, and I tend to get frustrated and give up. It's also the reason I haven't broken down and gotten an e-reader yet. I need to have the physical paper, in my hands, to read and comprehend it.

Though oddly enough, I have no problem with forums/email. It's just when I *know* there's a paper version, I have to have it

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In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz

Accountant here. If we're manning the barricades against the popular misconceptions, count me in. I'll share with librarians and actuaries. I can bring a practising scientist who objects to the 'total nutcase in white lab coat trying to destroy the world' image too, if there's room?

Actually, most so-called mad scientists from movies etc are clearly engineers not scientists: building a giant laser is a task for an engineer not a chemist.

Yes, but we chemists get the glowing and/or steaming flasks of coloured liquids that mean SCIENCE! is being done.

Too true. As an entomologist, I really should spend more time in khakis crawling on the rainforest floor with a magnifying glass.

As an entomologist, do you want to come over and take care of this bug for me?

When I was a kid, a teen, and a young adult (sometime back during the Roman Empire) fried rice always contained bean sprouts, scallion, and bits of scrambled egg as well as the animal protein of your choice. Nowadays pork friend rice might have bean sprouts, but none of the other stuff.

When and why did this happen?

I would pay cash money to swap fried rice providers with you. I don't mind the egg, but my wife hates it. What I do mind is the peas and carrots that come in all the fried rice around these parts. I don't hate the taste or texture, but I don't particularly like it, either. I'd gladly get rid of it all and replace it with an equal weight/volume of rice.

I came home from grocery shopping to find a giant flying Texas roach having its way with my freshly cleaned kitchen. This isn't just squeamishness; these are horrible creatures that give me straight-up panic attacks. It's seriously the biggest one I've ever seen, and I'm seriously freaking out, and my stupid husband was heading home from work and got a flat tire, and so I'm sitting in the living room with my back to the wall, watching the kitchen, and holding a bottle of bug spray, and my groceries are probably melting.

AAAGH! Where's the EEK! emoticon? Boy, do I ever feel your pain on this one. And darn if those things don't just materialize out of thin air, scurrying inches away from your feet. I tried to sic my tabby after them, but all he succeeds in doing is herding them towards me!

I sprayed it with bug spray, and I think it liked it. The dog is even terrified of this one. If I threw a shoe at it, it would throw it back.

I've mentioned this before, but imagine having one crawl up the INSIDE of your pant leg.

Accountant here. If we're manning the barricades against the popular misconceptions, count me in. I'll share with librarians and actuaries. I can bring a practising scientist who objects to the 'total nutcase in white lab coat trying to destroy the world' image too, if there's room?

Actually, most so-called mad scientists from movies etc are clearly engineers not scientists: building a giant laser is a task for an engineer not a chemist.

Yes, but we chemists get the glowing and/or steaming flasks of coloured liquids that mean SCIENCE! is being done.

Too true. As an entomologist, I really should spend more time in khakis crawling on the rainforest floor with a magnifying glass.

As a statistician I'll be there with my calculator, messed up hair and pencil to crunch numbers from the data you get from the rainforest floor and the steaming flasks of coloured liquids.

As a corrections officer, I'll stand around and watch all of you work. Oh, wait, that really is what I do...

My dad is a cheese snob. He takes me to task for saying, "Gooo-dah" (Gouda) in the store instead of "Hough-dah." (With the H in the back of the throat.) "Snowflake, if you don't learn to pronounce these things, no one will know what you mean!" It's fun to watch him ask for "Hough-dah" over and over again in the store with the clerk looking at him perplexed. I'm not talking about a nice European import store either. This happened at the Deli in our local Albertsons.

As an aside, even when I lived in Gouda, and now when I talk about the city, I would still say Goodah when talking with foreigners.

p.s. If your dad is not Dutch, his pronounciation is probably still off.

Accountant here. If we're manning the barricades against the popular misconceptions, count me in. I'll share with librarians and actuaries. I can bring a practising scientist who objects to the 'total nutcase in white lab coat trying to destroy the world' image too, if there's room?

Actually, most so-called mad scientists from movies etc are clearly engineers not scientists: building a giant laser is a task for an engineer not a chemist.

Yes, but we chemists get the glowing and/or steaming flasks of coloured liquids that mean SCIENCE! is being done.

Too true. As an entomologist, I really should spend more time in khakis crawling on the rainforest floor with a magnifying glass.

As a statistician I'll be there with my calculator, messed up hair and pencil to crunch numbers from the data you get from the rainforest floor and the steaming flasks of coloured liquids.

As a corrections officer, I'll stand around and watch all of you work. Oh, wait, that really is what I do...

As a botanist I really don't know, I mean I really DON'T KNOW what is causing the yellow patches in your lawn. I don't, so stop asking. Dad, are you listening to me?

When I was a kid, a teen, and a young adult (sometime back during the Roman Empire) fried rice always contained bean sprouts, scallion, and bits of scrambled egg as well as the animal protein of your choice. Nowadays pork friend rice might have bean sprouts, but none of the other stuff.

I have a favorite Chinese restaurant that my family and I have gone to for years (like 30+) and they have the best Chinese food and their fried rice is still as Venus describes - rice, egg, scallions and bean sprouts (and beef as that is what I like). I always said, the day I go there and they bring out fried rice with all that other stuff is the day I stop going

I have two Chinese take-out and delivery places between me and the subway station I use most often. One menu I just looked at has "House Special Fried Rice" which is probably what I'm looking for. That might mean adding another 50 cents to my combo plate price from now on.

I keep smelling food baking in the oven even though I know there's absolutely no one else who could be baking. It started about a week ago when I smelled chocolate chip cookies baking, and today I keep smelling soft pretzels! Makes me want to bake some.

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

I'm not sure if this goes here or in the SS thread, but since it's technically legal, I'll put it here.

Why, when there's a perfectly wonderful bike path available 3 feet away, do bicycle riders insist on using a narrow, two-lane road during rush hour traffic? I know they have the right to do so, since it's not illegal for bike riders to use the actual road, but when the county's gone through the trouble of putting in a nice, wide, smooth, well-maintained bike path, why would you choose to forgo your own safety, and that of the motorists around you, just because you can? It's far from safe (this is Miami we're talking about...we have some spectacularly crazy drivers down here) and it backs up already bad traffic. The reason the county put the bike path in was to keep the bicyclists safer and to reduce congestion/prevent accidents. Use it already!

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Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)

I'm not sure if this goes here or in the SS thread, but since it's technically legal, I'll put it here.

Why, when there's a perfectly wonderful bike path available 3 feet away, do bicycle riders insist on using a narrow, two-lane road during rush hour traffic? I know they have the right to do so, since it's not illegal for bike riders to use the actual road, but when the county's gone through the trouble of putting in a nice, wide, smooth, well-maintained bike path, why would you choose to forgo your own safety, and that of the motorists around you, just because you can? It's far from safe (this is Miami we're talking about...we have some spectacularly crazy drivers down here) and it backs up already bad traffic. The reason the county put the bike path in was to keep the bicyclists safer and to reduce congestion/prevent accidents. Use it already!

I've never tried biking in Miami but as a cyclist it's sometimes more difficult to ride on the bike bath because I have to dodge walkers, people with pets or small children, bikers that are just moseying along or going 5 mph or in a pack. Often I'd rather take the risk of the road where I can make actual progress than cover the distance to home at 5 mph.

When I was a kid, a teen, and a young adult (sometime back during the Roman Empire) fried rice always contained bean sprouts, scallion, and bits of scrambled egg as well as the animal protein of your choice. Nowadays pork friend rice might have bean sprouts, but none of the other stuff.

When and why did this happen?

Since you started going to a crummy restaurant? It still has all that stuff when I get it.

I'm not sure if this goes here or in the SS thread, but since it's technically legal, I'll put it here.

Why, when there's a perfectly wonderful bike path available 3 feet away, do bicycle riders insist on using a narrow, two-lane road during rush hour traffic? I know they have the right to do so, since it's not illegal for bike riders to use the actual road, but when the county's gone through the trouble of putting in a nice, wide, smooth, well-maintained bike path, why would you choose to forgo your own safety, and that of the motorists around you, just because you can? It's far from safe (this is Miami we're talking about...we have some spectacularly crazy drivers down here) and it backs up already bad traffic. The reason the county put the bike path in was to keep the bicyclists safer and to reduce congestion/prevent accidents. Use it already!

I've never tried biking in Miami but as a cyclist it's sometimes more difficult to ride on the bike bath because I have to dodge walkers, people with pets or small children, bikers that are just moseying along or going 5 mph or in a pack. Often I'd rather take the risk of the road where I can make actual progress than cover the distance to home at 5 mph.

I could see where that might be an issue, but this particular bike path was designed to eliminate that problem. In a rare display of city intelligence, they tried to predict every objection that bikers might have and built the path in a way that would eliminate the objection. The path is very wide, allowing two bikers to pass each other and a pedestrian at the same time. Essentially it's three "lanes" wide. Also, this particular road is extremely heavily traveled, and was not built for as much traffic as it currently handles. It's a two lane road that was intended to be residential that became a popular alternative to US1 in the southern part of the county. During rush hour, traffic is generally bumper to bumper for 15 or so miles, going at roughly 2mph. There are no shoulders to speak of. From a pure safety concern, I can't wrap my brain around the refusal to use the bike path under those circumstances. Unfortunately, there are several bike vs. car accidents along that stretch of road every year, including a handful in the last decade or so that proved fatal.

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Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)